Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Downtown Merger

35 South Pleasant is adjacent to Amherst Town Common

The Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce and the Amherst Business Improvement District will be consolidating their two downtown offices into one larger better located one at 35 South Pleasant Street in the heart of downtown.

Chamber Director Tim O'Brien hopes to be serving hot chocolate to folks attending the lighting of the Merry Maple in early December from the new shared location.

 Chamber's current location opposite Jones Library

Since their current location is owned by Barry Roberts it probably will not take long to rent it out to another business entity or perhaps Amherst Coffee sill simply expand into it.

 Click to enlarge/read

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's great news for people that love Amherst.

Anonymous said...

Sure, put the new BID smack in the middle of prime real estate guaranteeing less space in Amherst to shop, eat, and hang out. Oh, but you can come to our visitor center and see what we don't have in Amherst. What a waste of prime commercial space. Sort of like putting the bathrooms on the 50-yard line at Foxboro during a game. Real smart.

Anonymous said...

Lol Anon 117. You have not been paying attention for several years now. Jeff Brown has been trying to find a long term tenant for that place for awhile. Good for him and good for the Chamber and the BID!

Anonymous said...

There's always some loser that has to throw cold water on everything good.

Larry Kelley said...

Yep.

Especially via the internet.

Anonymous said...

My sense is that these organizations pay rent. The space is property of the landlord, not the community's intentions. This is not an issue taking up prime real estate because it is not yours, it is not prime to you.

But what I just wrote probably looks like Chinese if you have Amherst goggles on.

Oh wait, is that offensive to the Chinese?

I take it all back.

Anonymous said...

Good would be building the towns commercial zone to success. As it is now, Amherst is a ghost town where it's main street is used primarily to get to the other side of town. The school has made sure to offer better value for students so they stay away. The rest of the town is a few restaurants that hold on to whatever they can get. The town clearly doesn't want commercialization so putting the BID where it will be is perfect as these properties haven't been rented in years. Fill up the empty stores with whatever you can. Like everything in Amherst, it's run by intellectuals with no experience in the real world. It's like learning to drive by only reading a drivers manual then getting behind the wheel and getting on a highway.

Anonymous said...

"The rest of the town is a few restaurants that hold on to whatever they can get."

There are over 40 restaurants in Amherst, but please feel free to continue spouting your nonsense. Meanwhile, a new office and retail building will be built next year that already has its primary tenant.

Anonymous said...

That is one restaurant for every 1600 or so people (town plus schools) in Amherst. For the entire country there is one restaurant for every 500 or so people.

Thus, Amherst has about 1/3 the number of restaurants per person when compared to the national ave.

Data gets in the way of shutting down "nonsense"

But this is not the issue, you don't plan communities, they happen via spontaneous cooperation. If you try to plan a community, all you will do is spend/waste money facilitating special interests. The next thing you know, folks will be justifying spending more then a few thousand per year on a kid's education.

Anonymous said...

Love the use of the word "co-located."

Anonymous said...

9:42 AM you are arguing with people who haven't a clue as your simple fact demonstrates. This is what happens when people who have nothing but degrees in education and no real world experience do. The fantasy trumps reality. Amherst has about 16 eating establishments in proper downtown including a few proper sit-down places, holes-in-the-wall and take out – plus, lots of vacant stores. Counting Bubs as Amherst and anything you can find on Google that geographically falls in or near the town doesn't quite make it. Guess Subway isn't exactly a Mecca for proper dining either. Make that 15.

Anonymous said...

It's only offensive to Chinese who have no sense of humor. They say "it looks like English to me."

Anonymous said...

And now the English may take offense. Lol

Anonymous said...

The merger is a great idea. A downtown visitors center will be a real asset.

Anonymous said...

Since there are triple the 16 restaurants downtown you mentioned, your math is so off that your argument is ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

The exact count is 46 eateries in downtown. And two more are opening soon.

Anonymous said...

...and two more closing soon if we are doing Amherst Math....